Bus driver wants out of child sex assault plea

He pleaded guilty to assaulting a girl, 12, at least three times. Hearing to withdraw it set for May.

March 20, 2012|By Kevin Amerman, Of The Morning Call

A former school bus driver in Allentown who reluctantly admitted in January to sexually assaulting a 12-year-girl on at least three occasions in 2010 now wants to withdraw his plea.

Ricardo Cintron, 32, of Allentown was supposed to be sentenced Tuesday. Instead, he told Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony he wants a trial. Anthony will hold a hearing in May to consider the request.

About a dozen supporters of Cintron's attended the hearing and at least one shouted at Cintron's alleged victim before the hearing, according to authorities. Shouting from the hallway could be heard from inside Anthony's courtroom before the hearing and sheriff's deputies had to break it up.

After the hearing, sheriff's deputies escorted the alleged victim and her family to their car.

After a spirited discussion with his defense attorney in January, Cintron hesitantly pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a person under 16, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

In return for his plea, felony charges of aggravated indecent assault of a person under 13 and aggravated indecent assault of a child were dropped. Misdemeanor counts of indecent assault on a person under 13 and corruption of minors were also withdrawn.

Cintron molested the girl on three occasions in Allentown, Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk said.

At the time of Cintron's January 2011 arrest, he was working as a school bus driver for First Student's Allentown location. The company says Cintron's employment was terminated that month.

Falk has noted there's no evidence that Cintron sexually assaulted anyone on the bus.

According to court records, Allentown police began an investigation after the crime was reported in November. The girl was interviewed by a child interview specialist in December at the Lehigh County Child Advocacy Center. She said the assaults happened from February to November 2010.

Cintron spent six days in jail on the charges before posting $200,000 bail, according to court records.

Court records show Cintron was placed in a probationary program for first-time offenders in 1999 on a simple assault charge in Lehigh County. Also in Lehigh, he pleaded guilty last year to loitering and prowling at night.

In Montgomery County, Cintron was charged last September with robbery of a motor vehicle, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, aggravated assault, simple assault, drunken driving, accidents involving damage and careless driving, according to court documents. Those charges are still pending.